Fontana Unified Police Dispatcher Awarded in Wrongful Termination Case

July 21, 2015 - Jolee Berdnik, a police dispatcher, formerly with the Fontana Unified School District, alleges that she was fired from her position as a result of reporting an officer who was accused of sexual assault and rape of fellow dispatchers. After a month long trial, the jury verdict came back in her favor, awarding the wrongfully terminated police dispatcher over $315,000.

Berdnik’s 2012 wrongful termination lawsuit claimed that she was let go in retaliation for reporting officer John Garcia’s alleged conduct. Her superiors responded to her report of Officer Garcia’s behavior by terminating her from her position.

Three other current and former employees of Fontana Unified’s police division have made claims that Officer Garcia sexually assaulted or raped them on the school grounds. All three attacks allegedly took place in 2010 and 2011. All three have obtained representation to pursue legal recourse. 

After an investigation into the allegations originally reported by Berdnik, Officer Garcia was fired from his job, but he was not brought up to face official criminal charges.

If you are unclear what it means to be wrongfully terminated from your position review the standard definition of the phrase below:

Wrongful termination – a broad term/phrase that has a very specific legal meaning. Many individuals are terminated from their positions. And many will feel that the loss of their employment is “wrongful.” But the legal definition of “wrongful termination” is limited to only those very specific circumstances in which an employee is fired from their job for an illegal reason.

Common reasons that constitute “wrongful termination” include: your sex, your age, your race, your religion, complaints of sexual harassment, or reporting company wrongdoing to authorities (whistleblowing).

If you need additional assistance in determining whether or not you have been the victim of wrongful termination, please get in touch with the southern California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.

Cooper Wrongful Termination Lawsuit: Set for September Trial

June 29, 2015 - Former Lafayette Parish School Superintendent Pat Cooper is scheduled to go to trial the week of September 21^st. Cooper was fired from his job by the Lafayette Parish School Board in November. About two weeks after the board made the decision to fire him, Cooper filed a wrongful termination lawsuit.

In his lawsuit, Pat Cooper claims wrongful termination on the basis that he was fired without cause. He claims he was ousted from his position for political reasons as well as plan old vindictiveness. The board already spent over $120,000 in legal fees prior to firing Cooper in November.  

Wrongful Termination has become a very widely used term. Generally speaking, it can mean many things, but legally speaking, it refers to a very specific situation in which very specific consequences may follow for employers involved. Many individuals are terminated from work positions. A lot of these workers who have lost their jobs may feel that their job loss was “wrongful.” But the legal definition of wrongful termination is more limited that the general meaning the combined words may indicate upon first hearing the phrase. Legally speaking, wrongful termination refers to circumstances in which an employee is fired from their position for an illegal reason. This could include being fired for discriminatory reasons (race, religion, age, gender, etc.), being fired in violation of employment contracts in place, workplace retaliation, etc.

If you need additional information regarding what constitutes wrongful termination so you can determine if you were wrongfully terminated from your job, contact the southern California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.

Wrongful Termination Lawsuit Results in $725,000 Settlement

June 16, 2015 - Kelly O’Haire, former San Francisco Police Department lawyer, sued the city and the Police Department in 2013. She claims that she was fired because she made accusations that the chief mishandled a domestic violence investigation. City officials recently agreed to pay $725,000 settlement.

When O’Haire worked for the SFPD, she was in internal affairs. In 2009, she recommended that then Deputy Chief Suhr be fired after a friend called in to report that her boyfriend had been physically abusive. While Suhr encouraged the woman to file a police report, he did not attempt to arrest the boyfriend. O’Haire states that this was in violation of department policy. O’Haire was demoted to captain.

Two years later, O’Haire was promoted to chief and within weeks he fired O’Haire. Her supervisor was also fired. Suhr claims that both terminations were a part of efforts to cut costs. After a judge refused to toss out the case, the settlement was announced. The judge and the city’s Board of Supervisors will need to authorize the payout.

Since her dismissal from the police department, O’Haire has been unable to find work as an attorney. O’Haire is working as an investigator with the University of California, Berkeley. City lawyers apparently decided to offer a settlement after it was discovered that other employees that the police department let go to “cut costs” were allowed to stay on the job after notification of termination so that they could maximize their retirement benefits. In comparison, O’Haire was not allowed the same opportunity.

If you have questions regarding wrongful termination or in what instances being fired is illegal, please get in touch with the southern California employment law attorneys at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.

Wrongful Termination Suit: California Woman Fired for Deleting a 24/7 Location Tracking App from her Phone

June 12, 2015 - California’s own Myrna Arias is a former employee of Intermex. While she worked for the company she was issued an iPhone. As an employee of the money transfer company she was also required to download Xora (which is an application/tool designed to help businesses to streamline their scheduling and travel routes for employees in the field).

Myrna Arias was allegedly fired for uninstalling the location-tracking application. Her boss required it to be downloaded on the company issued phone for company’s use in maximizing employee time while on the clock.

Her boss allegedly admitted to Ms. Arias that use of the app meant that her location would be tracked both during AND after business hours as the app ran 24/7. Ms. Arias stated that he even went so far as to brag that he knew the exact speed she was traveling at any given point during the day or night.  

Myrna Arias states that she didn’t have an issue with the application tracking her through GPS function during her work hours, but that she definitely objected to the continued use of the tracking application during non-work hours. She complained about it to her boss, John Stubits, telling him that it was an invasion of her privacy. He replied to her complaints in an unsatisfactory manner. Reminding her that she was required to keep her phone on 24/7 in order to accept phone calls from clients. She deleted the application in April 2014. 

The use of this type of employee tracking app is a new phenomenon that is becoming more and more popular. Some see this type of application as a major cause of the breakdown of traditional boundaries between professional and private lives. 

Arias filed suit in Kern County Superior Court seeking damages over $500,000.

If you would like to discuss the possibility that you are a victim of wrongful termination, contact the southern California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.

Southern Californian Cosmetologist Claims She Was Fired for Getting Pregnant & Preparing for Maternity Leave

June 10, 2015 - A cosmetologist, Shana Wilson, is suing the Sherman Oaks salon that denied her breaks and then fired her for getting pregnant and preparing for maternity leave. Her allegations of the abusive conditions at the salon are similar to other allegations being made in similar businesses in other California cities.

Ms. Wilson filed suit against Nail Garden and her supervisors at the salon, Marc and Sally Awad. Allegations include in Wilson’s suit include pregnancy discrimination and harassment, wrongful termination, failure to prevent harassment, workplace retaliation, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, etc. Suit was filed seeking compensation (of an unspecified amount) and punitive damages as well as a desired injunction that would prevent the Nail Garden salon from continuing the same treatment in the future.

Wilson claims she was hired as a licensed cosmetologist in February 2014 after demonstrating her abilities for the Awads. Her job duties included: styling hair, manicures, pedicures and waxing. During her employment, Wilson indicates that she regularly received praise regarding her work from both clients and her employers. Her hairstyling was seen as particularly excellent and was featured numerous times on their Nail Garden social media sites.

Even so, Wilson claims that as soon as she became pregnant (three months after being hired) she was harassed. When she started to have stomach pains in response to bending over to perform pedicures for clients, she requested a reprieve from that particular job duty. Sally Awad started to criticize Wilson’s work and reduced her hours from a full 40-hour work week to 32 hours.

According to the suit, one week after Wilson asked about taking maternity leave, Marc Awad advised her that she was fired due to “complaints about her nail work” from clients. Wilson claims that she was fired because she was pregnant and was planning to take maternity leave. Wilson also alleges that during her time at Nail Garden, her supervisors had her take clients during her breaks and that she did not receive the required itemized statement of hours worked and wages earned. She claims that Nail Garden purposefully failed to compensate her for the full amount of hours she put in on the job.

The problem is so widespread amongst salons that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that he will establish a task force to look into the matter as many are claiming that employees at such establishments are being short-changed and asked to work in unsafe working conditions.

If you need additional information regarding appropriate workplace conditions, wrongful termination or pregnancy discrimination, contact the southern California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik./contact

Wrongful Termination Suit: Former VP Files Suit Against Blue Shield of California

May 20, 2015 - Blue Shield of California was named as the Defendant in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former chief technology officer (CTO). Aaron Kaufman, former CTO, claims he was fired one day prior to receiving a $450,000 bonus because he raised concerns about a costly contract. The former CTO claims that he repeatedly recommended that the insurer sign a fixed-price $1.6 million contract for a “Veritas data project”. He claims his repeated recommendations were denied by Blue Shield CIO, Michael Mathias, who instead opted in December 2014 for an open-ended $4.6 million contract through a different vendor.

Kaufman claims that at one point he was in Mathias’ office making the recommendation and that Mathias responded insisting that Kaufman leave his office and never bring up the $3 million cost savings issue again. According to Kaufman, Mathias did not provide an explanation for why he seemed beholden to the other, overpriced vendor.

Kaufman’s employment as CTO was terminated on March 11^th. The company cited alleged violations of Blue Shield’s travel and expense policies. The termination was completed the day before Kaufman was due to receive his $450,000 bonus (earned as of December 31, 2014).

A spokesman for Blue Shield disagreed with the complaints made by Kaufman, but didn’t want to provide additional comments regarding the suit.

Recently, criticism that Blue Shield of California behaves like a for-profit insurer has been rampant. The group even lost their tax-exempt status. In 2014, the company posted $13.6 billion revenue. They hold over $4 billion in their reserves. A former executive, Michael Johnson, has called on Blue Shield to return about $10 billion in public assets to the state accord to recent stories in the media. The organization also faces heavy pressure to lower its premiums for Californians.

If you need additional information on wrongful termination call or email the southern California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.

Cooper Wrongful Termination Lawsuit: Set for September Trial

June 8, 2015 - Former Lafayette Parish School Superintendent Pat Cooper is scheduled to go to trial the week of September 21^st. Cooper was fired from his job by the Lafayette Parish School Board in November. About two weeks after the board made the decision to fire him, Cooper filed a wrongful termination lawsuit.

In his lawsuit, Pat Cooper claims wrongful termination on the basis that he was fired without cause. He claims he was ousted from his position for political reasons as well as plan old vindictiveness. The board already spent over $120,000 in legal fees prior to firing Cooper in November.

Wrongful Termination has become a very widely used term. Generally speaking, it can mean many things, but legally speaking, it refers to a very specific situation in which very specific consequences may follow for employers involved. Many individuals are terminated from work positions. A lot of these workers who have lost their jobs may feel that their job loss was “wrongful.” But the legal definition of wrongful termination is more limited that the general meaning the combined words may indicate upon first hearing the phrase. Legally speaking, wrongful termination refers to circumstances in which an employee is fired from their position for an illegal reason. This could include being fired for discriminatory reasons (race, religion, age, gender, etc.), being fired in violation of employment contracts in place, workplace retaliation, etc.

If you need additional information regarding what constitutes wrongful termination so you can determine if you were wrongfully terminated from your job, contact the southern California employment law experts at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.